The trade for Samuel Dalembert took a smidgen out of the Kings 2010 cap room, because Dalembert was paid more this season ($12,025,694) than Hawes and Nocioni combined ($9,832,800). That amount boosted the Kings' 2010/11 committed salary to $36,500,829, a figure onto which we must add DeMarcus Cousins's salary ($3,374,640), as he has already signed his rookie deal. There is also a qualifying offer extended to Jon Brockman, which is fully guaranteed; the fact that the Kings extended that offer, whilst also signing Cousins early (first round picks almost always have smaller cap holds when unsigned than when signed, since cap holds are 100% of the rookie scale and players almost sign for 120%), suggests that the Kings aren't too serious about doing the cap space thing.

Cousins is the right pick for Sacramento, for they needed a big man. There were of course a multitude of other big man options in this size-laden draft, but Cousins represents the best chance of stardom. He is better than Favors right now. He has NBA size, great strength, athleticism as well, soft hands, a deft touch, footwork, and the ability to score in the post going either left or right. Moreover, he is a prolific rebounder, who grabbed as-near-as-is 10 rebounds per game list year in only 23 minutes. That's an unbelievably good rebounding rate, particularly in view of the 35 second shot clock that sees less possessions per game. Cousins ranked 28th in the nation in defensive rebounding percentage last season, and ranked second offensively: the only player with significant minutes in the NBA last season to come close to Cousins's 19.1% ORB% is the man he may replace in Sacramento, Jon Brockman (18.2%). DeJuan Blair (16.0%) is comparatively a mile behind.

Note: Non-US teams that the player
has played for are, unless stated otherwise, from the top division in
that nation. If a league or division name is expressly stated, it's not
the top division. The only exceptions to this are the rare occasions where
no one league is said to be above the other, such as with the JBL/BJ League
split in Japan.

Follow this
site on:

Copyright ShamSports.com, 2007-2017. All
content copyright of the website's owner.